Extract from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

By J.K. Rowling

‘Er ... could I ask you about ... that court thing I was in ... in the Pensieve?’

‘You could,’ said Dumbledore heavily. ‘I attended it many times, but some trials come back to me more clearly than others ... particularly now ...’

‘You know – you know the trial you found me in? The one with Crouch’s son? Well ... were they talking about Neville’s parents?’

Dumbledore gave Harry a very sharp look.

‘Has Neville never told you why he has been brought up by his grandmother?’ he said.

Harry shook his head, wondering, as he did so, how he could have failed to ask Neville this, in almost four years of knowing him.

‘Yes, they were talking about Neville’s parents,’ said Dumbledore. ‘His father, Frank, was an Auror just like Professor Moody. He and his wife were tortured for information about Voldemort’s whereabouts after he lost his powers, as you heard.’

‘So they’re dead?’ said Harry quietly.

‘No,’ said Dumbledore, his voice full of a bitterness Harry had never heard there before, ‘they are insane. They are both in St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I believe Neville visits them, with his grandmother, during the holidays. They do not recognise him.’

Harry sat there, horror-struck. He had never known ... never, in four years, bothered to find out ...

‘The Longbottoms were very popular,’ said Dumbledore. ‘The attacks on them came after Voldemort’s fall from power, just when everyone thought they were safe. Those attacks caused a wave of fury such as I have never known. The Ministry was under great pressure to catch those who had done it. Unfortunately, the Longbottoms’ evidence was – given their condition – none too reliable.’

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